Success Story: Efficient Production Planning in Injection Moulding and Toolmaking at Starlim

From small quantities to several hundred million units per year, Starlim stands as the world’s largest silicone processor for technical moulded parts. In mass production, ensuring full functionality and faultlessness of products while maintaining process efficiency is paramount. To achieve this, Starlim relies on the smart planning and scheduling tool GANTTPLAN from DUALIS GmbH IT Solution, which guarantees transparency and a seamless flow of information in production.

Key Highlights

Initial Situation:

• The planning processes were becoming increasingly complex and could no longer be managed manually.
• The company produces from small quantities up to several hundred million units per year.

Special Features:

• Use of the APS software GANTTPLAN from DUALIS since 2014.
• High planning requirements, especially for tool planning.
• The software was rolled out to international locations such as Canada.

Benefits:

• Scheduling of over 1,000 orders in just 40 seconds
• Improved control of the injection moulding area and tool planning.
• Quality gains through increased transparency, time savings, error avoidance and an overall broader range of planning options
• High level of standardisation enables simple conversion of planning processes at new locations.

Starlim: Largest Silicone Processor for Technical Moulded Parts

The Starlim-Sterner Group excels in the development and production of technical silicone moulded parts using both single and multi-component technology, with a strong focus on mass production. As a contract manufacturer and B2B supplier, Starlim is recognized as the market leader in silicone moulded parts production, employing around 1,500 people across international locations in Europe, Canada, China, and Morocco. Producing over 14 billion silicone parts annually, starlim holds the title of the world’s largest processor of liquid silicone.

At Starlim, silicone injection moulded parts are meticulously developed, and the necessary production tools are designed and built to ensure fully automated and process-optimized reproduction of silicone products, even in clean room environments if required. Before a product can be released for mass production, each product undergoes rigorous testing to ensure it is fully functional and error-free as a prototype in its application.

To achieve efficient and transparent production processes and meet planning requirements, Starlim adopted the GANTTPLAN production planning and scheduling software in 2014. This software is currently utilized in the injection moulding process, enhancing transparency and ensuring a seamless flow of information between the planning and production levels.

High Flexibility in Mould Planning

Starlim leverages GANTTPLAN to control the injection moulding area and manage the associated tool planning. GANTTPLAN serves as a central tool for generating realistic and optimized production plans, providing a high degree of flexibility in meeting planning requirements, particularly for mould planning.

The Group licence was acquired in autumn 2016, and GANTTPLAN has since been rolled out to the Canadian site. Thanks to its high level of standardisation, the planning processes were easily adapted at the Canadian plant.

From Prototype to Practice

Before deciding in favour of GANTTPLAN, the planning managers at starlim were already working with an integrated system. However, the company’s expansive development and the resulting immense increases in quantities and productivity led to increasingly complex planning processes. “We had simply outgrown the previous solution. We had therefore reached the point where we could no longer balance or handle the many parameters to be taken into account at the necessary speed manually,” explains Markus Bründl, VP Operation at Starlim.

People and Technology Hand in Hand

The tool needed to be scalable to meet evolving requirements and initially map the injection moulding process. Its introduction was planned in close collaboration with Starlim’s experienced planning experts, ensuring that people and technology complemented each other perfectly and work seamlessly together. DUALIS developed a GANTTPLAN prototype for the decision-making process, which simulated a small machine park and demonstrated the feasibility and potential benefits for Starlim. The existing option (prototype interface) for connecting to the ERP APplus used by Starlim was also a convincing factor. Another advantage was that the production planning and scheduling tool did not need to be integrated into the existing ERP, allowing it to be introduced independently as an add-on.

The intuitive usability and high functionality of the planning tool were already convincing during the test phase. DUALIS’s unique development expertise and extensive experience in production planning strongly supported the decision for long-term cooperation. In combination, this resulted in a customised solution for Starlim that can also be adapted to future requirements at any time. The GANTTPLAN rollout was successfully introduced by Starlim’s team within five months, parallel to ongoing operations. This “open-heart surgery” was executed with minimal disruptions.

The Result: Scheduling Over 1,000 Orders in Just 40 Seconds

Today, the APS tool is integral to the daily injection moulding process, managing tool planning, sequencing orders, and planning and assigning personnel groups. Planning is divided into pre-series planning (test production) and series planning (mass production), all conducted on the same resources. Each planner uses their local GANTTPLAN in a collaborative planning process.

“GANTTPLAN opens up a world of new possibilities for us. The greatest advantage of the planning software is that it prevents the multiple utilization of a resource. While this is now a given thanks to GANTTPLAN’s extensive features, functions like interactive planning and dynamic set-up optimization, combined with high transparency and user-friendliness, are particularly valued by our employees. This allows them to focus on their planning expertise without being bogged down by complex processes,” explains Martin Meindlhuemer, Manager Production Planning and Control at Starlim.

Another positive aspect is the tool’s integrative, flexible, and modular structure, which offers features such as color schemes for visualizing company-specific data. Overall, Starlim benefits from increased transparency, time savings, error avoidance, and a broader range of planning options.

Thanks to the high adaptability and expandability of GANTTPLAN, Starlim is well-prepared to tackle the next expansion stage at any time. The implementation of GANTTPLAN in mould making is already in the planning phase. Ultimately, in the final expansion stage, the GANTTPLAN systems from the injection moulding and toolmaking departments will seamlessly communicate via the central ERP system.

[This article was originally published in 2020 and was updated in March 2024.]